Sister Philomene Tiernan of the Australia/New Zealand Province boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on Thursday after spending time in Great Britain and in France, said Sister Lynne Lieux, headmistress of Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Coteau.

Lieux said she and Tiernan had been friends for many years and had attended a Sacred Heart conference together in London in June. Tiernan had traveled to Grand Coteau in 2006 to visit Sacred Heart, which was founded in 1821 and is the oldest continuously operated Sacred Heart school.

"We were with over a hundred Sacred Heart educators at the University of Roehampton in London for an educational and spirituality conference," Lieux said of her recent time spent with her friend.

In an emailed letter to parents, students, faculty and others connected to the Grand Coteau school, Lieux said that following the conference, Tiernan had traveled to Joigney, the home of St. Madeleine Sophie, and had made an annual retreat and had visited the chasse of St. Madeleine Sophie in Paris.

"She was on her way home from these events when this accident occurred," Lieux said.

Tiernan, 77, had served as an educator at Stuartholme in Brisbane, Australia, and had held administrative positions with the order. Stuartholme has had student exchanges with Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau for many years.

Lieux, who was on a spiritual retreat Friday, said she had been notified of Tiernan's death by Sacred Heart student Jennifer Doucet, who is on an exchange to Stuartholme.

"Her death is a great loss to her family, friends, and the Society of the Sacred Heart," Leiux said in her letter to the Sacred Heart school community. "Please join us in praying for her and for all those whose lives she touched, and for the others who were also killed in this terrible accident."